1. American Literature

2. Periods of Am. Lit. Beginning of American Literature:
Colonial Period
The Revolutionary Age
The Early National Period

3. 2. Romanticism, Transcendentalism
The Romantic Period
(Also known as:
TheAmerican Renaissance)
The Age of Transcendentalism

4. 3. Realism, Naturalism The Realistic Period 1900-1914
The Naturalistic Period (extreme realism)
s 1920s, 1930s:
American Modernist Period:
Jazz Age,
Harlem Renaissance
The "Lost Generation"

5. 1939-present 1950s 1960s, 1970s The Contemporary Period:
The Beat generation
American Literature recognizes works of:
African-American Writers
Native American Writers
Asian-American Writers

6. Colonial Period Periods of Am. Literature vary a lot
It´s impossible to give exact dates
The first literature started to appear after founding of the first settlement at Jamestown in 1607
It continuoud till the outbreak of the Revolution

7. Literary genres: Historical writings
Religious themes – sermons (kázání)
tracts
Writers:
Anne Bradstreet (poet)
Benjamin Franklin (The Way to Wealth)
William Bradford

8. The Revolutionary Age
The greatest documents of American history were authored:
Thomas Paine (Common Sense – he urged independence)
The Declaration of Independence (Thomas Jefferson )
The Constitution ( ratified)

9. The Early National Period
Beginnings of true Am. Literature
The writers wrote in th English style but the settings, themes and characters were authentically American

10. Washington Irving – he wrote about Am. Life, biography of G. Washington
James Fenimore Cooper – The Last of the Mohicans
Edgar Allan Poe

11. E.A.Poe (1809-1849) son of a poor actress (drastic death)
his father alcoholic
He was taken by his guardian Mr. Allan
Studied West Point – kicked out
Marriage with 13 year-old cousin
She died of TB ten years later – despair, grief was reflected in his works
1849 found delirious in a steet

12. The Raven (poem) - a tired, unhappy student asks if he ever meets his love again
His doubts are underlined by the raven´s repetition „nevermore“,
symbol of doubts and longing

13. The Golden Bug
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Black Cat
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Fall of the House of Usher

14. His work:
1. realism: detective stories – logical, brilliant, rational
2. romanticism – irrationalism, mystery, violence, criminality, death, passion
Perverse, vulgar, grotesque style.

15. Transcendentalism American reflection of European romanticism
Philosophical movement

16. The transcendal philosophy was based on:
Free will
Humanity
Intuition
Individual conscience
It glories nature

17. All transcendentalists were isolated people
They lived in „Utopian Community“ – Brookfarm near Boston
The individual can transcend the world and discover union with God and Ideal

18. Main representatives:
Ralph Waldo Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau

19. Other Romantic Writers
Herman Melville – symbolist (Moby-Dick)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)
the main theme –sin
Hester has te wear letter A – means adulteress
Walt Whitman (poet)
Emily Dickinson (poet)

20. Realistic Period After Civil War:
Social injustice – first millionaires appear (Rockefeller)
discoveries in science (railway, telegraph cable, telephone,…)
Growth of education
Twain called this period „gilded age“

21. Realism Action against romanticism Main literary form – novel
Authors accuse romanticism of falsehood
They describe common things, common places, everyday life

22. Mark Twain His real name: Samuel Langorne Clemens
He spent his childhood on the Mississippi river
Workedon a steamboat on the Mississippi
Travelled a lot
He recollects his childhood in his books

23. The Innocents Abroad
The Gilded Age
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Advedntures of Huckleberry Finn
Tom likes danger, he´s always able to avoid problems, Huck represents social conscience, he´s sensitive to everything around him

24. Naturalism Derived from the word nature (interest in nature)
It has its origin in France – Zola
Prople are influenced by environmental forces (outside us) and inner drives (inside us) – peole can ´t control them
The main drives of characters: hunger, fear, sex, …

25. Their writings are often cruel and tragic.
Stephen Crane
Jack London (Tjhe Call of the Wild)
Theodore Dreiser (An American Tragedy)
Upton Sinclair (The Jungle)

26. Lost Generation
A term applied for Am. Writers born around 1900, who fought in WWI
The term comes from Gertrude Stein
Main features: description of the loss of traditional values as the result of the war
other social evils

27. Ernest Hemingway
Find some info. about him

28. F. S. Fitzgerald Connected with Jazz Age in 20s
Wrote many stories about wealthy people
The Great Gatsby – masterpiece
(a rich man earns money by smuggling, he loves Daisy, but Daisy is married
Nick – a narrator is is disgusted)
American Dream

29. Other 20th century writers
The Harlem Renaissance:
Harlem (N.Y.) was a centre of it
Motto: Let us return to Africa! (in a literary sense)
We all have sth. in common

30. Main representatives:
Langston Hughes
Countee Cullen
Richard Wright

31. The Great Depression = the end of American Modernist Period
William Faulkner
John Steinbeck
Eugene O´Neil (a playwright)
Dealt with social and political issues

32. Jewish Writers Big emigration of the Jews to the US
Writers explore new themes of identity, psychological problems
They are looking at their racial background
Saul Bellow
J.D. Salinger (The catcher in the Rye)
Bernard Malamud
Joseph Heller (Cath 22)

33. The Beat Generation The main personalities:
A. Ginsberg, W. Boroughs, J. Kerouac, G. Corso
Knew each other, travelled through the US by taking drugs and having many sexual affairs
SAn Francisco – cradle of the Beats

34. Basic Characteristics
Wanted to live life without social conventions
Against supermacy of money
Their idol = wanderer travelling with his bag from a state to state, listening to JAZZ, being spontaneous, free, sincere
Taking drugs, drinking alcohol

35. Jack Kerouac On the Road Written on toilet paper
Journeys from East of States to the West